kobe to gasol: “be the black swan”

LOS ANGELES — At Monday’s Lakers practice, a day after Kobe Bryant took 10 consecutive shots on his own down the stretch of Los Angeles’ 109-96 loss to the rival Boston Celtics, Lakers forward Pau Gasol was asked if he was going to talk to Bryant about shooting less.

Turns out Bryant beat him to the punch, approaching Gasol in private sometime between the Celtics loss and the Lakers’ 114-106 overtime win over the Houston Rockets on Tuesday to implore the Lakers big man to play like him and shoot more.

“When I’m out there being aggressive and doing my thing, he needs to follow suit and just be just as aggressive which is hard for him because it’s kind of against his nature. But I think tonight was a good step,” Bryant said.

“Even when he was in Memphis and he was the go-to guy, he was always very nice. Very white swan. I need him to be black swan.”